After US midterms, is there a time limit on the Iran war? - analysis

The Jerusalem Post · SETH J. FRANTZMAN · 2026-11-05 20:46 UTC

There is also a lack of clarity about why the nuclear program, which has been singled out as the reason for the conflict, has not been eviscerated, despite the time provided for the conflict.

In the wake of the US midterms, there is a lot of discussion about the Iran war and what may come next. The consensus building among many commentators and also recently elected people, from governors to members of Congress, appears to be that the war should wind down. Winding down a war is always more complex than getting involved in a war. This has been historically true for the US, whether it was the US involvement in Vietnam or the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

One takeaway from Vietnam was the concept of the Powell doctrine. It posited that if the US got involved in another war abroad, it needed clear, attainable objectives. This was relevant to the Bush administration in 1990 when the US agreed to send troops to help defend Kuwait after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded the country.

The US performed well in the 1991 Gulf War. However, many of the lessons of the Powell doctrine were forgotten during the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Later, the US returned to Iraq in 2014 to fight ISIS. This war learned from the GWOT, aiming to work through local partners so others would shoulder the burden of the fighting.

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